Reserve and collect works for Halfords and Argos

Allowing customers to reserve items online for instore pick up is working well for retailers, with both Argos and Halfords posting impressive improvements in multichannel revenues.

In both cases, reserve and collect services were responsible for driving significant numbers of offline sales.

While overall profits for both retailers were relatively unchanged, Argos increased its multichannel revenues, accounting for 42% of sales in the last quarter. up from 26% in the year to February. Its Click and Reserve service was responsible for 17% of all sales, growing by 45%.

These collect in store services offer users the chance to browse online with a view to but at a local store. It can save the customer a wasted journey by allowing them to check local product inventory levels.

It also gets around customer concerns about delivery charges, and as well as appealing to shoppers who may be not be able to stay at home and wait for deliveries.

There is the challenge for retailers of integrating online and offline channels so that product inventory levels are kept up to date, but the benefits in terms of driving offline sales have been worth the effort for Halfords, Argos and others.

It's not enough just to offer these services though; they must be made as usable as possible for customers. Here are a few recommendations:

Don't charge for delivery to stores

One of the reasons that customers will choose to reserve and collect is to avoid delivery costs, so there shouldn't be any extra charge for this. Unless you spend over £25, Boots will charge £2.89 to collect items from your local store, which must deter a few customers.

Allow shoppers to check inventory before checkout

Save customers the bother of adding products to their basket and registering before finding that products are out of stock at the local store by allowing them to check stock levels on the product pages.

This is what Halfords and Argos both do. In the example below, Argos advises that just 4 items are available at the local store, which is a good incentive for customers to make the purchase:

Offer to deliver items to local stores

In cases where the local store is sold out of a particular product, offering customers the option of having the product delivered there may be enough to save the sale.

Suggest alternatives that are available in store

If a particular product is unavailable in the nearest store, offering an alternative, similar, item is the next best option.

Reserve and collect is a really gem in online retail. The obvious choice for using it is to avoid postage
costs but I think more crucially are the time pressures of purchase. If you need a gift within 24 hours (as I do)
then reserve and collect is and excellent offering.

An excellent feature to further help mop up extra sales and
very importantly strength the customer relation ship.

over 7 years ago

Outraged

I have just been charged £17 delivery to the Isle of Wight and am (understandably?) outraged. I have lived there for 25 years and have never come across a charge like this before. This was not made clear on their website & they will not allow me to cancel the order. Be careful...

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